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The present invention relates generally to monitoring and control of wireless telecommunication systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for tracking call processing failure data in a radiotelephone system.
Radiotelephone systems are wireless telecommunication systems in which a two-way radio communication link is established between one or more base stations and a mobile station. As the mobile station moves around the geographic area covered by the system, the communication is handed off from one base station to another. Radiotelephone systems include cellular telephone systems, personal communication systems (PCS), trunked radio systems and others.
Call processing failures occur in radiotelephone systems for a variety of reasons. Transmission from a local station may be unexpectedly interrupted if the mobile station enters a tunnel or loses battery power. During handoff, communication with the old base station may be terminated before initiation of communication with the new base station. Other reasons exist as well, such as co-channel and adjacent channel interference.
Many such call processing failures occur randomly. However, a large percentage of call processing failures may occur due to the same cause. Such a cause might be an otherwise undetected equipment failure. Another cause might be a break in coverage pattern of the system, where handoff failures occur. If such causes can be detected, they can be corrected and overall system performance improved.
One previous technique for tracking call processing failures uses a software program running on a personal computer (PC) coupled to a cellular processor of a cellular telephone system. The PC program reads radiotelephone data for call processing failures of an analog phone system and provides counts of the failure by type.
While useful, this previous solution has not kept up as cellular systems expanded. For example, the PC connects to a port of the cellular processor and collects data for a single switch of the cellular telephone system. Data for other switches in the system are not available to that PC. The PC is not portable, but requires a hard-wired connection directly to the cellular processor. The former system only reads call processing failures in an analog advanced mobile phone system (AMPS), not the digital systems currently being deployed. Only failure count totals are available. No details on individual call processing failures can be accessed. Further, only real time data are available. Historical failure data are lost.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for tracking call processing failure data in a radiotelephone system.